South African Minister of State Security Dipuo Letsatsi-Duba makes it clear that while the Jewish community is under no particular threat, the department of state security takes seriously its mandate to protect the country’s citizens.

Lawyers are preparing criminal and civil charges following one of the darkest weeks of anti-Semitism in South Africa. There have been a slew of vile incidents that sent shock waves through the community.

The SA Friends of the Beit Halochem Zahal Disabled Veterans Organisation was established in Johannesburg in 1982, its primary goal being to help and support Zahal disabled veterans by raising funds to help them return and resume their normal lives as soon as possible.

Dr Ali Bacher, former South African cricket captain and administrator, was one of the five recipients of the 2018 Steve Tshwete Lifetime Achievement Awards at the SA Sport Awards held in Bloemfontein on Sunday night.

Devotion to the cause of the State of Israel flourishes in the most unlikely places, even in societies where the Jewish presence is small to non-existent. Such is the case in Mozambique, where the work of Beth-El Associacao Crista Amigos De Israel - Mozambican Christian Friends of Israel - testifies to how much can be achieved by those inspired by their Christian faith to promote the Israeli cause, despite adverse conditions.

JNF’s unique “Blue Boy Box” now lives at King David Linksfield Pre-Primary so that children of each generation learn the importance of tzedakah (charity or welfare). It is the responsibility of Jews all over the world to build Israel, develop it and nurture it as the home of the Jewish nation

“Knowledge is Light” was our school motto when I was a child in Durban. The importance of education was made clear to us from as far back as I can remember. It wasn’t taken for granted. A good education was a privilege.

Late on Tuesday, a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas went into effect. While at the time of writing the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) had still not confirmed the existence of such a truce, Israeli citizens living in the south of the country were told they could return home and to “normalcy”.

The Israeli gymnastics team was out in full force at 48th FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships that began at Aspire Dome in Doha, Qatar, on Thursday. There are five males and two females in the team headed by new Israeli sensation Artem Dolgopyat. The others are Alexander Shatilov, Ilan Korchak, Andrey Medvedev, and Michael Sorokine, while the women are Ofir Netzer and Meitar Lavy.

As I was heading home on Tuesday, I heard on ChaiFM that 460 rockets had been fired from Gaza into Israel since late Sunday. That is an outrageous number. If every one of them hit inhabited areas, thousands of Israelis would have been killed.

“The president is not directly responsible for acts of domestic terrorism, but he should be more careful with his language.” That’s the way the Economist headlined its report on the horrific Pittsburgh killings just more than two weeks ago.

With Prince William’s historic visit to Israel this week, all eyes have been trained on the Jewish capital. It may have taken 70 years, but the first official visit by a member of the British Royal family began in Israel on Monday, when William, the Duke of Cambridge, arrived in Tel Aviv.

Some 5 600 emissaries (shluchim) from Chabad-Lubavitch from all over the world gathered at the Pier 8 warehouse in Brooklyn, New York this week for the opening of their four-day annual international conference and banquet, 75 years after the arrival of the Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson, from Europe.

“The greatness of our nation is that our people are great. We are a nation of heroes, of people with good and decent moral fibre who will not tolerate our country being plundered!” So said Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein in Pretoria this morning.“This is a struggle for accountability and justice,” Goldstein told the crowd (which included prominent Jewish CEOs like Adrian Gore, Stephen Koseff and Michael Katz). “This struggle is about sovereignty. The power of the people always triumphs in the end.”

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Neo-Nazi radio show The Daily Shoah (also known as "echoes" among anti-Semites) started some two years ago clandestinely spreading the word as to how neo-Nazi groups can target Jews online. Earlier this month, website Mic.com published an exposé on how this works – and over the past two weeks more and more Jews are rebranding themselves with pride - in solidarity with their tagged kinfolk.

The Shabbos Project has become a grassroots project with a life of its own - driven by the people for the people! Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein was a guest of honour at the Conference of European Rabbis in Vienna, Austria recently, as well as at the annual Rabbinical Conference in France. “It reflects our own community’s growing standing as an important part of the global Jewish community,” Rabbi Goldstein said on his return. The picture shows a French manual from last year's Shabbos Project

Catch up with old friends and family – download the SA Jewish Association of Canada (SAJAC) Pesach publication – what a great read this is for local and other expat SA Jews worldwide. This 112 page Pesach edition of SAJAC NEWS is the first that Jewish Report will carry, but by no means the last. We have agreed to continue publishing the biannual publication on an ongoing basis. This is the first time in their 40-year history that SAJAC NEWS will be available online.

An extraordinary series of developments are bringing new hope - and new heartbreak - to the family and colleagues of Alberto Nisman, the Argentine federal prosecutor who was found dead last year just days after accusing then-President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner of covering up Iran's role in the 1994 bombing of this city's AMIA Jewish Centre.

Donald Trump’s surging candidacy has sent shivers through the ranks of the Republican elite and created deep anxiety among Jewish Republicans, some of whom are so unnerved they are prepared to vote for Hillary Clinton if Trump wins the nomination. Yet others say that despite Trump's promise to be “neutral” on Israel and his support from white supremacists, conservative principles demand deference to the eventual nominee.

Trump hit on Israel ‘neutrality’, Sanders opens up on Jewish pride. In a stinging debate exchange early this morning SA time, Donald Trump’s professions of neutrality in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict became a front and centre campaign issue. And Bernie Sanders opened up on his Jewish Identity to the media yesterday too.

There is an old joke about the four students who have to write a thesis on the elephant. The English student’s thesis is on hunting and shooting the elephant, the German student prepares a detailed analysis of the anatomy of the elephant, the French student puts together a thesis on the love life of the elephant and the Jewish student writes about “The Elephant and the Jewish Question”.

Last week scientists said they had been able to directly detect the existence of gravitational waves, identified in ground-breaking “Theory of Relativity” by renowned Jewish scientist Einstein a century ago. But the announcement was not without controversy in Israel. At a similar announcement at Hebrew U, Israeli property magnate Dror Halevi took the opportunity to criticize Israeli society’s lackadaisical attitude toward the famous scientist while the world celebrated his theory’s centenary last year.

One person in the world of sport who gets very little attention but is often the man in the machine room is the all-important publicist. He is the man a sportsman and his team turn to, to make their player or event even bigger than it actually is.

More than one hundred thousand people were deported from the Westerbork transit camp in Holland during WWII. 102,000 of them did not return. The camp was obliterated after the war but, after an initiative by former prisoners, a museum opened in the Eighties and 102,000 stones were placed on the original parade ground. Read this compelling and under-told account of the transit camp that was, then wasn’t, and is now one of the most poignant memories of the Shoah.

CIA release picture showing an identification of Auschwitz extermination camp in early 1944. The Camp was captured by the Allies on January 27, 1945. SEE the picture and READ how it came about that SAAF Lieutenants Barry and McIntyre came to discover the first concrete proof of the existence of the death camp. Picture shows rows of people lining up, those selected to die being taken to Crematorium II, Crematorium III, and basement undressing rooms and gas chambers of both complexes.

A luxurious Jewish community centre and 400-seat shul opened its doors this month in the affluent village of Zhukovka on the outskirts of Moscow. VIPs such as Jewish construction magnates Boris and Arkady Rotenberg, associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin, arrived for the ceremony which was officiated by Chabad Rabbi Alexander Boroda (pictured), a former Red Army soldier. Read about the rise of Russian aliyah and the life of uber-rich Russian Jewry who aren't going anywhere!

US Jewry clamouring to host Olga Meshoe… Again! So impressed was US Jewry when Deisi International COO Olga Meshoe, a fervent Christian Zionist, went on a fundraising tour there earlier this year, that now she has been invited to return next May. And some of the biggest US Jewish organisations are now clamouring for her time to talk on American campuses. This past Monday evening, US national Jewish Broadcasting Services broadcast an interview of Olga by Shahar Azani taped during her May trip. Check it out…

The wold’s 435th-wealthiest person, Natie Kirsh, was honoured by ORT UK earlier this month for his philanthropic and charitable work. Interestingly, both ORT and Kirsh received Jewish Report Achievers awards in 2013.

A Jewish primary school and house were evacuated after a suspicious package was found there last Friday (pictured at left). Pupils and staff and neighbours were sent home early and the police detonated a “suspicious package” - a suitcase - in a controlled explosion after cordoning off the street at the back of Gateshead Jewish Primary School in England.

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu met French Ambassador Patrick Maisonnave (PIC: -Marine Crouzet/ French Embassy) yesterday (Wed) ahead of the J-Post Diplomatic Conference at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel which both were scheduled to attend, in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Paris, and said: "In Jerusalem today we stand with the people of Paris. The people of Israel stand with the people of France. Ambassador, this is not a figurative stance, it's not just lip service.” Read what else Netanyahu said and more on the attacks…